🚀 Go 1.25rc1 Is Out — Here’s What You Need to Know

Published: Jun 14, 2025 Last Updated: Jun 14, 2025

Hey fellow Gophers 👋,

Great news from the Go team — they’ve just released Go 1.25rc1, the first release candidate for Go 1.25! This is a perfect time for us developers to try it out, run our unit tests, and help the Go team ensure a smooth final release.

I’ve taken a first look at the release candidate, and here’s everything you need to know.

📥 How to Install Go 1.25rc1 #

If you already have Go installed, you can try the new version easily using the Go toolchain:

go install golang.org/dl/go1.25rc1@latest
go1.25rc1 download

This installs go1.25rc1 as a separate binary, so it won’t mess with your current setup.

Prefer downloading manually? You can grab the binaries or source code directly from the official downloads page:

👉 Download Go 1.25rc1

🔎 What’s New in Go 1.25? #

While the final release notes aren’t out yet, the draft release notes give a solid overview of what’s coming:

📄 Go 1.25 Draft Release Notes

Some key areas to look out for:

• Compiler and runtime performance improvements
• Continued enhancements to the garbage collector and linker
• More refined error messages and tooling upgrades
• Small but meaningful updates to the standard library

I’ll be digging deeper into these over the next few days and will share any cool discoveries I come across.

🧪 Why You Should Test It #

If you maintain any Go services, libraries, or tools, now is the time to test. Running your code against the release candidate can help:

• Spot regressions early
• Catch breaking changes (if any)
• Improve Go’s final release quality by reporting issues

You can report any problems using the official Go issue tracker here: 🔗 https://go.dev/issue/new

🗓️ What’s Next? #

This is just the release candidate, so the final Go 1.25 release is still around the corner. Based on past schedules, it usually follows in a few weeks, assuming no major blockers.

Until then, give go1.25rc1 a spin, and let’s help polish it for prime time.

If you try it out and find anything interesting, hit me up — I’d love to hear what you discover!